


Bubbling Down Memory Lane

by Solitarysynonym



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Dream Bubbles, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-25
Updated: 2015-05-25
Packaged: 2018-04-01 03:20:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4003885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Solitarysynonym/pseuds/Solitarysynonym
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The betas wander through a dream bubble, bickering about whose memory they should explore next.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bubbling Down Memory Lane

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wintercourse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wintercourse/gifts).



> For Betapalooza 2015 with the prompt: 
> 
> "Coming of age dreambubble adventures! I don't mind whether it fits somewhere in canon, post sburb, or au. Just the kids hanging out in dream bubbles! They could have some adventure or grand save-the-world objective, or they could just sit around being teens and making out with each other, its your call! Other characters are fine, but the focus is developing beta ot4. I just really like the idea of teen movie cliches in weird surreal settings. So maybe they're in a memory of Rose's house and all get super smashed and make out, or they walk through an abandoned half destroyed Houston, or Jade's jungle! Mixing all those places up with game settings and magic clouds and horrorterrors and seeing how it affects the kids is really what I'd like to see, but you can take it wherever you'd like from there :) Bonus points for angsty childhood memories and cool surreal dream landscapes (like in Roxy: Sleepwalk)! Fluff/angst/anything is fine except PWP."

“So your house was just THIS full of booze ALL the time?” Jade asked, gesturing with a (mercifully) empty martini glass which meant that this time her emphatic gesturing did not fling good alcohol out and about. “Yes,” Rose said, not bothering to open her eyes and invite the spins back in.  
  
The four of them were comfortably sprawled on the sectional couch with a large array of liquor bottles carried off from Rose’s mother’s room spread out on the floor. Between them they had managed to empty a surprising number of the bottles. Jade was the only one still upright. She was tucked securely into a corner with her legs folded under her. Her dog ears were perked forward, swiveling toward whichever of the other three was talking at the moment. John lay to her right on his back with his head in her lap. He was by far the most grateful that her glass was empty at present because she kept accidentally pouring her drinks on him as she talked. Rose cuddled against Jade’s other side, holding her drink-free hand hostage and considering shoving John out of Jade’s lap and taking over. Rose’s legs stretched out along the couch, her bare feet pressed against Dave’s side. Dave, for whatever reason, dangled partway off the couch on the other side of the U from where John sprawled. His knees were hooked over the back of the couch, his head hanging off the seat. His left arm draped absently over Rose’s shins and the other lay limply on his other side as he watched John, Jade, and Rose cuddle across a sea of bottles. He no longer remembered why it had seemed like a good idea to watch them upside down, though at least this way he felt less temptation to make himself another.  
  
Jade gestured with her empty glass again and John groaned as the glass glowed green and refilled with martini from a shaker on the floor. “No fair! You refused to use your space powers when MY cup was empty!” he complained, trying to reach up and steal the drink. His swipe missed spectacularly for a number of reasons, not least because his glasses were atop Rose’s head. “It’s not my fault YOUR powers made such a mess when you tried to refill your cup yourself,” Jade retorted, downing her drink triumphantly before John could steal it or spill it. Rose giggled and patted John’s face. “No indoor tornadoes you,” she slurred. “This might just be a memory of my house but I have no desire to go visit the wizard of Oz.” Dave stirred enough to point his free hand at Zazzerpan over Jade’s shoulder. “More than enough wizards in here already,” he volunteered, then reached for a bottle randomly from the variety of shapes, colors, and sizes. They’d been sampling Rose’s mother’s collection all afternoon and were well and truly on their way to being completely sauced.  
  
Dave clumsily flailed himself more upright, winding up with his head on Rose’s hip before he managed to sit up, absently pulling her feet into his lap as he took a drink from the bottle and surveyed the flushed faces of the other three. He grinned at them and held up the bottle. “This one’s pretty coconut-y,” he proclaimed, taking another drink.  
  
“Jade, Jade I want it!! Fetch!!” John shouted, pointing at the bottle in Dave’s hand. Jade rolled her eyes, laughing, and gestured with her drink. With a brief green flash John vanished and reappeared lying on the kitchen counter behind Rose. Rose’s attempt to drop her head into Jade’s lap failed entirely however as Jade vanished too.  
  
“I can’t tell if space witch powers are confusing or if I’ve had too much to drink,” Rose complained, sadly patting the space where Jade had been and poking Dave with her foot when he didn’t respond right away. “It’s not the space witch as much as it is the hellbeast first guardian teleportation powers,” he said when he swallowed his mouthful of rum, leaning forward as John floated off the counter and attempted to steal the out of focus bottle. “Get your own bottle Egbert! There are so many bottles available why do you have to go for mine?” Dave demanded, screwing the cap on and trying to hide it under Rose’s legs. He yelped when she kicked him for his troubles. Rose laughed when her distraction let John yank the bottle out from under her and moved her legs before John dropped out of the sky and into Dave’s lap, triumphantly taking a pull from the bottle. Dave rolled his eyes and shoved John off. Rather than falling onto the floor, John drifted upward, laughing, and wafted over to look the massive wizard statue over.  
  
Rose eyed the spread of bottles. “Don’t your seer powers tell you which ones are the best?” Dave slurred, scooching across the cushions to plop his head on her shoulder. “The booze makes it harder,” she said back, grabbing the nearest one instead and squinting at the label.  
  
A clank of bottles from the top of the stairs announced Jade stomping down the stairwell with a few more bottles in her arms, clearly returning from another foray into Rose’s mom’s room. “I don’t think we’ve tried any of these yet,” she announced, setting them on the kitchen counter. John drifted down to look them over as Dave and Rose groaned in unison from the couch. “I think we have enough bottles Harles,” Dave objected, randomly grabbing another one from the jumble on the floor and struggling with the cap.  
  
Rose laughed at him but pointed out that it was a cork and he’d do better with a screw on lid. Dave rolled his eyes behind his shades but swapped for one of those, leaning against Rose and sipping from his bottle. They were drunk enough that it took long minutes before they realized that they hadn’t heard anything from John and Jade in some time.  
  
A quick look from the couch showed neither of them in sight and Dave and Rose finally got to their feet, drunkenly wandering about the living room in a sort-of search pattern. “Hey!” Dave said when he found John pressed back against a bookshelf in the shadows of the staircase. John’s legs were wrapped around Jade’s hips and the two of them were so into their kissing that Dave had to shake Jade’s shoulder to get their attention. Jade surfaced for air and glanced back at Dave, her dog ears pinning back in irritation. “What?” she growled. Dave held up his hands in surrender, noting the new hiccies on John’s neck with a petulant surge of jealousy. “Listen I don’t want to harsh your buzz or interrupt this clearly important gathering of tongues,” he babbled, overbalancing slightly and having to grab onto the bookshelves for support. Rose had found a seat on the staircase to watch and snickered at his inability to stand straight. “Not helping,” he objected, pointing at her and frowning. “You’re losing your flow Strider,” Rose responded, pointing back at him and then nodding toward the resumed makeouts.  
  
“Hey, hey!” he shouted more loudly than he meant to. Something about the excess of alcohol had made volume control difficult. Dave leaned against John and Jade until they came up for air and stared back at him. Or rather squinted back at him. Rose still had John’s glasses and Jade had pushed hers up to get them out of the way. Dave chuckled. “Look.. listen I mean, you gotta… you gotta know and be prepared like… Kissing is great, and fun,” he slurred, realizing how strong the smell of alcohol was with the three of them so close together. He leaned in and kissed John’s cheek. “Kissing’s the best but like… kissing can lead to other places and dicks are…” He gestured at John’s crotch with his bottle as he leaned on Jade. “You gotta wrap it before you tap it. I really… I really love you guys and I don’t want you to wind up on 16 and pregnant Jade. Do you know where babies come from? They’re like… little parasites and they’ll make you have a guest spot on trashy reality shows.”  
  
“Babies come from a lab on a space meteor,” Rose said from behind him, smirking as she leaned against Jade’s back, reaching up to stroke the furry ears. “No… Rose I mean yes but no! I mean… condoms are important and you need to use them if you’re going to go any farther,” Dave slurred solemnly.  
  
John dropped to the ground and shoved Dave’s shoulder lightly. “You’re my best bro but you’re being kind of a buzzkill,” he complained but managed to grab Dave’s wrist before the other overbalanced and fell. Jade shook her head but crouched slightly and let Rose jump up on her back. “How about a change of scenery?” Jade proposed, grinning when she was met with cheers from the other three, eager to get away from the scene of Dave’s attempt at sex-ed.  
  
The foursome wobbled to the door and opened it to the forest fire. “Boring!” Rose announced, closing her eyes. “Whose turn is it?” “I’ll take this one!” Jade proclaimed, screwing up her face as she thought about green hills and jungle. The sky overhead rippled and crackled as the fire and trees were replaced with grass and a sea breeze. The stars gave way to a bright blue sky and scattered clouds. “Too bright,” Dave complained, dragging them forward to night time. “No sunburns tonight.”  
  
John kept ahold of him as they followed the sound of gentle waves down to the water. Rose finally hopped down from Jade’s back as they shed layers and waded in. “We should have visited you,” Rose said with a happy sigh as she floated in the warm water. “How would that even have worked Rose?” Dave demanded, submerged to his chin and staring up at the stars. John snagged his glasses off of Rose’s head and pushed them into place on his own face. “We could have taken boats… I went to the beach sometimes but on the west coast..” John was cut off as Jade splashed him. John’s memories had begun to ripple, the shore turning rocky and a current of cold water made them all shiver. “No pacific northwest when we’re in the water!” she barked at him. Dave tackled him and they both went down with a splash as Jade focused on her memories of warm water and sand.  
  
“Nicely done,” Rose said happily, floating nearer and reaching for Jade’s hand. Jade leaned down to kiss her, ignoring the splashing and spluttering as Dave and John tussled, trying to steal each other’s glasses.  
  
“Hey! Jade what did I tell you about gloves! And love!” Dave objected. John took advantage of Dave’s distraction to steal the other’s shades. “Hey!!” Dave yelled as John launched himself up in a blast of air that sprayed the other three with water. Dave glared up at John but was distracted by the stars behind him, staring up into the darkness.  
  
The sky pulsed red and a thrashing farther out to sea caught their attention. Rose and Jade broke apart as a dark shape breached out of the water, massive and with too many arms, eyes, and everything. “Is that…” John said softly, sinking back down into the water. “Really Dave? You are so terrible at controlling your memories,” Rose admonished. “It would serve you right if I dragged us all back to LOLAR where you could have another sunburn.” “It’s ok I got this!” John proclaimed, though all four of them continued to watch the horrorterror as it cruised back and forth a mile or so away. “I am thinking about LOWAS,” John said aloud, his eyes closed behind his glasses as he rubbed his temples. “Lots of water… but after I got rid of all the oil…. That oil smell sure was strong though…”  
  
The salt smell of the ocean was beginning to reek of tar and oil as the landmass behind them twisted, transitioning. “Focus is important, John,” Rose said calmly as Jade grimaced. “No one wants to be scrubbing oil off again.” “At least it’s better than the oceans of blood on Karkat’s planet,” Dave responded.  
  
The oil smell was abruptly replaced with an iron tang as the water went red around them. The sky was mauve with purple clouds and the island settled as craggy and black as other landmasses erupted out of the red ocean. The horrorterror was nowhere to be seen. “Aw Dave I almost had LOWAS,” John complained. “Why’d you make me think of LOPAH?”  
  
“Well think about LOWAS now!” Rose snapped, the reek of the water making her stomach rebel. John screwed up his face and finally cold water washed in around them under a dark sky. Rose could see dark shapes moving behind the twinkling of the fireflies but she kept it to herself for now as the other three splashed, washing the last traces of LOPAH off of them. 

\-----------

The water left them shivering and mostly sober when they finally headed for shore, looking around at the high blue cliffs. “Your planet is so gloomy, John,” Jade said in hushed tones. The high whistle of the Breeze was the only noise around them. “My planet was colder at first but at least there were frogs and hummingbirds…” John looked around and shrugged as he stood first on one foot then the other, the rocky shore too cold for his bare toes. “I thought it was a nice change from my boring suburbs… Everything there was neat yards and identical…” John trailed off as the sun beat down on them, white clouds spotting the clear blue sky. Green grass was much softer to stand on than cold stone.  
  
“Argh!” Dave yelled, pushing his shades back into place on his nose. “A little warning would be nice.” John snorted, gathering the wind around himself to dry off. “It’s not like I planned it, these stupid dream bubbles just do whatever they want!” The trees whipped back and forth as John did the windy thing, leaving them all dry but disgruntled. “John my hair is a snarl!” Jade protested, looking like she had just climbed out of a convertible with her dark mane a tangled cloud around her face. Rose patted her sleek coiffure back into place and snagged Jade’s arm. “We could go back to my place, I at least have a hairbrush which is more than these heathens,” Rose said primly as a brilliantly yellow cloud popped into existence several houses away and began to rain fluorescently. “No please anywhere but LOLAR,” Dave begged, wrapping his arms around Jade from behind and hiding in her tangled hair. “There’s brushes at my place or a salon back in Houston…”  
  
John drifted past overhead, blowing wind at the LOLAR cloud to keep it away as the clouds overhead strobed between yellow and white, dropping spatterings of colorful rain. “I’m ok with Houston,” Jade said, patting Dave’s arm.  
  
John yelped as he ran facefirst into a building that hadn’t been there a moment before, the rest of them standing on cracked pavement instead of soft grass. “I’m never going to get used to those transitions,” Rose complained, poking Dave’s side. “Lead the way since this is your home turf, Texan.”  
  
Dave looked around and grinned, snagging John’s ankle as the other drifted past and leading the way down the empty streets. “It’s a little weird to be wandering around downtown in our underwear,” Dave commented and took a step forward and back into his regular clothes. He stretched a bit as his comfortable t-shirt settled into place and scuffed his sneaker against the ground. “That’s better. This way to the barber!”  
  
“I’m intrigued by how uncomfortable you are in your own environment in your own head,” Rose called after him, squeezing Jade’s hand. “Afraid of a little shirtlessness among friends?”  
  
“Don’t even try to analyze me amateur Freud,” Dave retorted, pushing open a business door and tugging the casually floating John in after him. John ducked in through the doorframe and dropped down to stand on his own feet, his god tier outfit materializing around him as he landed. “Ha! We should do makeovers,” he crowed, pointing at the counters full of makeup.  
  
“I just want to get my hair in order,” Jade said, hauling Rose eagerly toward one of the chairs. 

\-----------

“Hold still Jade,” Dave ordered, trying to get the green eyeliner just right. “That feels weird!” she complained, though she was abiding by the rules and keeping her eyes closed. Jade’s hair had been neatly tamed but by then John had smeared enough makeup on Dave’s face that Strider resembled some sort of colorblind clown with red lips and red eyelids and enough bright pink blush that his cheekbones appeared to be trying to escape. John had been laughing so hard that Rose attacked him next and soon he was blue on blue on black and he and Dave couldn’t look at each other without cracking up. Jade took a turn with Rose and Dave kept shuddering whenever he looked at her. The usual black lipstick and severe eyeliner had been replaced with bubblegum pink lips and sparkly gold brushed onto her cheeks and over her eyes. “You look so cheerful and… not you,” he kept saying. John was busily trying to find fake eyelashes in entirely the wrong place as Dave working on Jade. 

\-----------

“Are you done yet?” Jade demanded, fidgeting in her chair. She had never had much use for makeup since it never held up well in the jungle and Bec had never cared one way or another how she looked.  
  
“Yeah Harles go ahead and open up,” Dave said in a hushed voice.  
  
Jade pried her eyes apart, grimacing as the extra lashes brushed against her cheeks. “These things are WEIRD,” she protested, blinking at Dave, then frowned. John and Rose were sitting on the table behind Dave and all three of the were staring at her silently, looking pretty stunned. “...What? Did Dave write something weird on my face?”  
  
“You look… wow…” John managed.  
  
Her usually wild hair was neatly braided and hung over one shoulder but the real change was her face. The extra lashes and dramatic eyeliner dragged the viewer into her bright green eyes and without her large glasses in the way her lightly emphasized cheekbones were on full display. Dave had glossed her lips and now all three were staring at them. Kissable was really the only word for them. Silently, Rose handed her back her glasses as Jade peered at them nearsightedly. Jade pushed them up her nose and the other three exhaled with relief.  
  
“Too much power,” Dave muttered, rubbing his hand over his eyes before he remembered that John had painted them. “Egbert!!”  
  
John laughed when he saw all the red on Dave’s hand. “It actually looks better this way!” he chuckled as Dave lunged for him. John fled gleefully as Dave pursued. “You should thank me!”  
  
Rose shook her head and smiled as Jade peered at her face in the mirror. “I don’t see what the big deal is!” Jade protested, grimacing as the fake eyelashes hit the inside of her glasses. “These are uncomfortable!”  
  
Rose smiled and helped her take them off. “You have to keep those glasses on Jade, they’re the only thing keeping the rest of us from siren-like madness,” she said solemnly as a loud crashing sound preceded Dave and John returning sheepishly, having knocked over a number of shelves while they battled.  
  
“No one ever says that about John! Or Dave!” Jade exclaimed as she tucked her glasses back into place.  
  
“We also never describe them as ‘luminous’ or ‘flawless’ for a similar reason,” Rose said patiently, leading the way out of the cramped shop and back into John’s neighborhood. “Accept your extreme hotness Jade, it is the only path forward.”  
  
The four of them flopped onto the grass in the shade of John’s house, relaxing as the wind sang softly overhead and the blue sky flickered occasionally red or black, distant horrorterrors drifting along with the clouds.  
  
“I guess the suburbs aren’t so bad with the right company,” John said.


End file.
